What is devised theater?

When you signed up for this class what did you picture?

Devised Theatre: Day 1

Or the reason I really hate the word ‘devised’ because it doesn’t mean anything.

Seriously.

In 2010 Arena Stage organized a weekend of panels and discussions as part of the American Voices New Play Institute that culminated in a final report that you can

find easily online. It was called:

Theater OUTSIDE the Box:

Devised Work

(cheeky emphasis mine)

Question:

Why do the following things belong in the same category?

A dreamy and intimate puppet show with magic and no words created by two actors without a director performed on a traditional stage

A traveling bus tour of the Bronx with no performers other than a mostly out of sight tour guide that is experienced through headphones and windows whose sole creative credits are two directors and a writer

An exploration of a famous transvestite inspired by her actual interviews and written by a single writer, performed by a single

actor with a single director at the helm.

(A script BTW that goes on to perform at some of the biggest regional theaters in the country)

A massive choose your own adventure installation about our relationship to money using 40 actors in a warehouse containing 12 performance spaces, headphone vignettes and 3 large scale

musical numbers by a company that’s also done…

A performance of a Shakespeare play with a traditional director hierarchy, performed as written by the Bard with an ensemble cast

in a traditional theater

Answer:

They don’t

Answer:Beyond the fact that they are all

called works of “theater” they aren’t very alike at all

Answer:

Except for the fact that the people who made them were invited as

experts to this panel on “devising”

This is why I hate the word “devised” when it’s applied as if

it signifies something we can immediately identify when

watching a performance

Especially when for some it’s become tacitly linked in

people’s minds with “weird” or “experimental” just for the sake of rebelling against “traditional”

theater

Or when it’s assumed that the skills employed by playwrights,

directors, actors, etc in a Broadway or LORT-style

production aren’t used by a “devising” one and vice versa

“Standard” Theater vs

“Devised” Theater

is a false binary people

Especially if you consider that our current “standard” model has only been the standard one for the last

five or so decades (coinciding with the rise of the American Regional Theater movement and related advocacy groups like TCG and the League

of Resident Theatres)

Especially if you consider that our current “standard” model has only been the standard one for the last

five or so decades out of theater’s

2,500 year history

From that report:

“The term “devised” theater has proven slippery and hard todefine. Although the participants in the convening – a crosssection of the field that included large ensemble leaders,puppeteers, duos, interview-based groups, individuals, andmany others – covered a wide variety of the diverse workdone in this field, all acknowledged the implausibility ofclassifying themselves as a specific ‘group.’ Although manyof these artists have united for the sake of drawing attentionto their work, there is, in fact, only one fundamental truththey could all agree on…

“The term “devised” theater has proven slippery and hard todefine. Although the participants in the convening – a crosssection of the field that included large ensemble leaders,puppeteers, duos, interview-based groups, individuals, andmany others – covered a wide variety of the diverse workdone in this field, all acknowledged the implausibility ofclassifying themselves as a specific ‘group.’ Although manyof these artists have united for the sake of drawing attentionto their work, there is, in fact, only one fundamental truththey could all agree on…

“There is no cookie cutter process for creating devised work.”

Is my point becoming clear?

Devising is not a style of performance.

Devising is not the absence of a director or the

presence of a collective.

Devising is not a particular aesthetic.

Devising is also not a lack of a script, removal of a

playwright, or a particular approach to text.

You can take a devised approach and create a very

“traditional” looking out put.

You can make a super weird and avant-garde style

performance using all kinds of “traditional” techniques.

Devising is simply an approach to playmaking

One that says there are lots of choices in terms of performance content, rehearsal methodology, and the aesthetics and form of

presentation

Devisers make those choices uniquely to each process in

order to best accentuate the experience we want the

audience to have in a play

Devising isn’t on opposite sides of a spectrum from the LORT standard

playwright centered auteur director driven four week rehearsal process…

Devising IS the spectrum!

And the LORT standard is on it.

…woah…

Devising is an openness to the potential worth of all the possible

methods, forms and styles of theater that can be imagined

With valuation of the “right” choices dependent on the

individual piece and what will best serve its content

Options when devising

Shakespeare

Kabuki

Regional Theater Model

Including the regional theater model!

Site specific

work

Dance/Movement

Audience interaction

Realism

Non-linear narrative

Clown

Promenade-style traveling

shows

If you actually look at the process in which they made their works,

you could easily make a case that

Shakespeare was a deviser

Moliere was a deviser

Stanislavsky was a deviser

Sondheim still is a deviser

Devisers aren’t “against” anything: scripts, traditional rehearsal process, whatever

We just aren’t automatically “for” them either

When I sat down to create a definition for “devised” play it was this:

A work of theater that begins from the assumption that there is no

singular process for its creation or preferable form for its outcome.

What matters most is the message or feeling you want to convey.

Swim Pony Performing Arts

• Loud, strange and never seen before on earth!

Swim Pony is committed to the creation of unique live performances that are joyful and defy tradition in order to bring contemporary audiences beyond their experiences of the every-day.

Swim Pony is committed to the creation of unique live performances that are joyful and defy tradition in order to bring contemporary audiences beyond their experiences of the every-day.

For me…

• It matters that it’s live

• It’s you something you can’t see in your regular life

These personal interests plus the content of the particular piece I’m pursuing result in wildly different outcomes

• Mission (aka the message):

A far more traditional process but performed in a VERY particular space with a non-linear narrative approach to storytelling and found object music all employed to convey a sense of tactile roughness, the weight of imprisonment and the distance between ourselves and history

A three year research process with two lead artists involving over 40 artists who rotated in and out of the work on Shakespeare and Roy Hart approaches to voice with writing by a playwright, myself and the ensemble that resulted in a very “normal” looking play on a stage in a theater

A co-production between a director based company and a comedy ensemble in which we performed in actual science lecture halls in order to increase the sense of “reality” for the audience so they would buy into their role and the “horror” effects used at the end of the play

And a piece about the massive, incomprehensible size and complexity of space with audience and performers moving through 20,000 sq ft

Seeing one of 128 different possible options for viewing the show, and any one person only able to see about a quarter of the show’s content in a single viewing

Including spaces that were entirely empty of “performers” and “performance” in order to achieve the sense of loneliness and the infinitesimal size of humans in relationship to it

So how do you do it?

• However you want!• All your choices should answer the question:

what best serves the story I want to convey or the experience I want to share?

• A lot of the time the “standard” process dictates a lot of these choices as a matter of course, some of which really serve your work and some of which might not

• As a deviser you’re always on the look out to find things that are changeable and could be made better with a different choice.

So how do you do it?

• Things that can change: the rehearsal process and it’s timeline, who is in charge, where content is generated from, the places you can perform in, the way you deal with the audience (and they with you), the kinds of collaborators that are in the room…

• Anything you can identify as potential variables could be, in theory, up for grabs

• Generally I divide those variables in two rough and untidy categories I’ve stolen from game design: elements and mechanics

Elements

• Elements are all the things that go into a performance and it’s process

• They are like the pieces of a game: the board, the players, the field, etc

• It might help to step back and think about a person who knows nothing about how a play works and is coming into a theatrical experience for the first time

• What do we encounter as audience?

Elements

• The space in which the performance takes place and the objects contained within that space

– This encompasses the stage, set, props, puppets which are categories that delineate formal differentiation between aspects of this larger concept, though it’s worth pointing out that such divisions are imposed categories and a spectrum between them exists

The Ballad of Joe Hill (2013)

The Ballad of Joe Hill (2013)

Where exactly do we draw the line between the “theater building”

and the “set”?

Elements

• The space in which the performance takes place and the objects contained within that space – This encompasses the stage, set, props, puppets which are

categories that delineate formal differentiation between aspects of this larger concept, though it’s worth pointing out that such divisions are imposed categories and a spectrum between them exists

– And any technical objects like speakers, lighting instruments and seating as well as areas that are “non-performative” like a lobby, dressing rooms or backstage spaces that may or may not be seen by the audience

– Maybe even the space around the theater building

– Again this lines can get fuzzy

The “preshow” bar at Sleep No More

Elements

• A number of human beings that currently occupy the delineated space who may or may not be visible at any given moment:

– Some of these humans are called performers: actors, dancers, puppeteers and musicians.

– It also, obviously, includes the audience as well.

– And it also includes those working on this thing in some other capacity – stage managers, run crew.

– But again those distinctions are not always clear…

Rotozaza’s Etiquette

Elements

• And all the things that the humans are doing/using to create the experience:– Speaking words (from a text/script)

– Moving around themselves and the objects around them (blocking, dancing, etc)

– Turning on and off lights at various times

– Playing sounds in different parts of the space

– Etc

– Etc

– Etc

Mechanics

• Mechanics are all the questions surrounding the function of artmaking.

• I see them sort of like the rules we imagine to guide the experience – both the creators and audience.

• Mechanics help all of us understand how we play the game with the pieces we have.

Mechanics

• Some of them are incredibly concrete:– How long does the experience last?– How does the audience view the work? – How do we know it’s over?

• Some are a bit more conceptual:– What rules govern how performers are allowed to

interact with each other and the audience? – How (if at all) can the audience affect what happens?– Is the quality of these interactions the same

throughout the experience or does it change? • Note some of these are explicitly stated, others simply

expected (especially in “standard” settings)

Mechanics

• Some are intuitive or aesthetic to the creators:– What material/ideas are we interested in exploring?– What information do we want and/or need to communicate?– How do we want the audience to feel?– What is the pacing/energy of the experience and how does it

change?– What is the style of the language/movement/music/image, etc?

• Some are narrative:– What is form or delivery of performance that is occurring?– Does time operate realistically? Is it a linear experience? – Is there language? – Are we interested in “plot”?– How literal or figurative is this world?

Mechanics

• Some of them are production related:– How much money do we have?– What is the time line this happens over?– What spaces and equipment do we have access to?– What audiences do we expect to bring in and/or want to reach?

• Some of them are process and interpersonal– What is the hierarchy of decision-making? Is there a “lead”

artist(s)? – What performers do we have/want and what are their skills? – Are there any new abilities we want to develop in this process?– What kinds of design are we interested in? – Do we have/want a director or outside eye? – When do people begin to engage with the process (at

conception, research, development, refining, performance)?

So how do you do it?

• Again, the question that guides the exploration is: what best serves the story I want to convey or the experience I want to share?

• Elements can have an influence on mechanics and vice versa: – A proscenium with a raised stage and audience sitting in seats

will likely induce less direct physical interaction between performers and audience than one in which the audience is on the same level and standing in the playing space with the performers.

• The more you do this, the more you might discover things that initially seem immutable or concrete actually have a range of possibilities you can experimenting with…

Embracing the Experiment

• An example: Let’s say you have a character in the text that is written (so far) who plays the accordion [element].

• Normally, when the text says this, it means that when choosing performers I must seek someone who has musical skills on this instrument (or can learn them fast enough) [mechanic].

• A case of element is dictating a mechanic.

Better go cast an accordion player!

Right?

Well…

If we step back with a sense of experimentation we can see that

we’ve actually made an assumption: i.e. that objects in space are literal.

Embracing the Experiment• We might test a mechanic that all props were imagined instead of

physically present:

– We might find that having actors mime objects highlights the action in a clean and sleek way.

– We might find that it’s interesting but the performers don’t have the mime skills and choose to take time to develop them

– We might find the first try is too specifically literal but then try again with a gestural language that more abstract and works better

– We might find that it’s not a solution for this scene but the mimed movement sequences are so beautiful that we want to include them in the play anyway

– We might decide we really do need that accordion playing actress

– We might decide the accordion is actually an unnecessarily large and gimmicky instrument and point out to the writer that our actress can play the flute…

So which one is it?

We could try and guess at the various potential results of testing each idea, but devising is based on the idea you can’t always know just by thinking, you actually have to try

it to see

Embracing the Experiment

• Many choices are not only up for grabs at the start but are constantly being tested and changed based on experimentation as the process progresses

• Many things that are generally “set” at the start –script, design elements, number/type of collaborators, even location – may change drastically as the creators better understand the work they are making.

• And often, more people get to participate in offering the inquiries of experimentation to be pursued.

• This process is something everyone is generally on board for and can go right up until (or even into) the performance period.

In this way “experimental” is used in the more scientific sense – as a means towards actively creating room for discovery. The aim is to

find unexpectedly effective avenues we might not have predicted ahead

of time.

I think of this as a way of saying there’s more out there than what

you already know

This is why devisers tend to shake things up again and again, making work in wildly different ways every

time they make something.

We rarely assume the last way will always be the right way.

This is why devised pieces tend to take so much longer.

It’s also why we so often frustrate funders and producers who want to

know lots of stuff ahead of time.

Side bar:

“Devising” is an approach that prizes openness to manipulation of the

elements and the mechanics of live performance in active experimentation

throughout the creative process in order to most effectively communicate a story,

idea and/or feeling to the audience.

Which brings me to the best definition I was able to create for “devised” theater:

A directing example from Swim Pony

• In early 2009 I met up with 4 performers and 3 designers and pitched them a show idea

• I wanted to create a piece that explored a few things:– When I watch or read about the vastness of the

universe or try to imagine an atom I feel both really insignificant and at the same time connected and a part of something so amazingly huge and complex

– Scientists think there are 10 dimensions and that this is a total mind fuck that hurts my brain

– I wanted to make a play about climate change that was interesting to watch

Questions we asked

• How do you feel scale rather than just think about it?

• Does the flow of information always have to be from stage to seats?

• What is the best way to make the audience understand super complicated scientific principles?

• Can we still control the experience if the audience has some agency in choosing aspects in what they see?

• Inspired by video game design• 22,000 sq ft• Choose your own adventure – up to 4 scenes in a round that do not repeat• Focused on building a consistent emotional journey rather than a narrative• 128 unique experiences• May not see a character• May not see a huge section of the space

SURVIVE!

SURVIVE!

SURVIVE!

• The format of the show (choose your own adventure with limited access to all scenes) mirrored the sensation I wanted, but we only found this out through research and trial and error of scenes in real time

• Some elements, like the climate change thing, fell away because it didn’t fit with the emerging line of discovery

• Some elements were ones others into the process, like NASA’s Voyager, and weren’t part of my original inkling of conception but became the central aspects of the work

SURVIVE!

Here’s a bit from that show…

These were two simultaneous scenes that were aimed at trying to communicate the idea that “data” can be present all around us but “knowledge” can still be out of our reach

Jamie’s (Kinetic Girl) experiments with language as a form of communication

https://vimeo.com/32683231

Brad’s character (The Gentle Scientist) evokes the feeling of patient/patronizing explanation of what is all around us

https://vimeo.com/32692385

So let’s try it!

• How do you start?

• However you want!

• Begin from mission

• Take a personal inventory of who you are and what you want to do

So let’s try it!

• Someone with an idea or image for a project that would be excited to turn into theatrical form

• Even better if it’s something that you’ve never been able to figure out how to do in “script” format

So let’s try it!

• That person will be the “lead” creator

• I’ll act as a facilitator for a large group brainstorming session

• You guys can imagine yourself as various collaborators (actors, designers, etc)

• Do you want to start with mechanics or elements?

So let’s try it!

Mechanics:

• What is it and what do you want to communicate about it?

• What is the taste/touch/sound/texture of this thing?

• What kinds of questions does it make you want to ask?

• Where (if anywhere) is it?

• What are things you associate with it (however abstract)?

• Does it evoke particular feelings?

So let’s try it!

Elements:

• Are there people you really want to work with?

• Are there spaces that immediately feel similar or right?

• Are there particular videos, songs, texts/stories or images that you associate with it?

So let’s try it!

• With these ideas in mind begin to build a rough timeline of process

• How best could you do this? Where? When?

• This is where the production elements come in and support an idea rather than driving it

And now…

Work for next time:

• Finish you surveys and hand to me today

• Read Chapters I, II and III in Art and Fear and respond

• Look through “Morning Pages” and begin your daily routine